Lineup Announced for Pittsfield CityJazz Festival;
Tickets Now on Sale for Expanded Oct. 10-19 Event
PITTSFIELD, Massachusetts, August 19, 2008– The Pittsfield CityJazz Festival
today announced the lineup for an expanded 10-day event that kicks off on
Columbus Day weekend and presents the best of both local and international
performers. The fourth annual festival, Oct. 10-19, will feature “Jazz around
town,” highlighting regionally-based artists on Oct. 10-12; Jazz in School, with
week-long performances and presentations in Pittsfield’s public schools; and
a series of headliner concerts.
Events comprise a variety of formats, and will take place at several venues
throughout downtown Pittsfield, the seat of Berkshire County in western
Massachusetts. Many events are free to the public, starting with a noon-hour
kickoff on Friday, Oct. 10, with the Eagles Stage Band, the Jazz unit of Pittsfield
’s own Eagles Band. Columbus weekend then features local performers in
restaurants and lounges around Pittsfield
Concerts get under way on Wednesday, Oct. 15, when the Noah Baerman Trio
performs at the Berkshire Athenaeum. Baerman (www.NoahBaerman.com) is a pianist,
composer, and educator, and has several CDs to his name. He recently was
profiled on NPR’s Piano Jazz with Marian McPartland. Attendance is free.
On Thursday, Oct. 16, acclaimed composer Evan Lurie premieres his “
Improvisations on ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’,” in a free concert at the Berkshire
Museum. Written for the Festival, Lurie’s work is part of Pittsfield’s “Big Read”
project, underwritten by the National Endowment for the Arts. A founding
member of the Lounge Lizards, Lurie is the musical director of Nickelodeon’s
Emmy Award-winning preschool show, The Backyardigans, and will be appearing with
his septet of accomplished NY-based musicians.
The Oct. 17 concert features “Jazz Meets Symphony,” with the New Black
Eagle Jazz Band and the Pittsfield CityJazz Youth Orchestra, at the historic
Colonial Theatre. In addition to a full set by themselves, the Black Eagles
(www.BlackEagles.com) will perform several of their traditional Jazz pieces that
have been adapted for small symphony, with an orchestra comprising student
musicians from Berkshire County high schools in Pittsfield, Dalton, Great
Barrington, Lee, and Lenox
For the first time, the festival will feature an evening of Jazz Vocals,
spotlighting the groups of Terry Roiger and Ron Gill. Roiger
(www.TeriRoiger.com) has made a name for herself with the repertoire of Billie Holiday and Nina
Simone, while Gill (www.Ron-Gill.com) has just released a CD of songs by
Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington. The Jazz vocalists will perform on Saturday,
Oct. 18, in a cabaret setting at Pittsfield’s Crowne Plaza Hotel.
The headliner performances conclude on Sunday afternoon, Oct. 19, with “
Organic Jazz, the Two Faces of Barbara Dennerlein” showcasing her formidable solo
talents at the pipe organ and Hammond B3. The concert is presented under the
sponsorship of the Berkshire Chapter of the American Guild of Organists.
Germany-based Dennerlein (www.BarbaraDennerlein.com), who is famous for her
prowess in playing the baseline on the pedals, is concluding her first American
tour with this matinee performance at Pittsfield’s First Baptist Church.
One festival highlight is the week-long jazz-in-the-schools program, with
the Pittsfield Sister City Jazz Ambassadors appearing in assemblies in
Pittsfield’s public schools. The group has represented Pittsfield at several
exchanges in Italy and Ireland, helping spread the message about Jazz, America’s
cultural gift to the world.
The event is an activity of Cultural Pittsfield, the mayor’s Office of
Cultural Development, and is co-sponsored by the Berkshire Music School. Among the
underwriters for this year’s events are:
* The Legacy Banks Foundation
* The Pittsfield Cultural Council
* The Crowne Plaza Hotel
* Greylock Federal Credit Union
* The National Endowment for the Arts
* Banulis Fund, Fidelity Charitable Trust/NY Times Foundation.
Tickets for all events are on sale at the Colonial Theatre box office,
www.TheColonialTheatre.org; a discount for all three weekend concerts is available
by calling the box office, 413-997-4444. Costs for the concerts are $25-30,
with student discounts available for the Oct. 17 and 19 concerts (Jazz Meets
Symphony, and Organic Jazz).
Links to artists’ sites, as well as news updates, are posted regularly at
www.PittsfieldCityJazz.org.
# # #
Contact: Ed Bride, 413-442-7718 [JazzPittsfield at AOL.com]
--------------------------------------------
Edward J. Bride, Chairman
Pittsfield CityJazz Festival
413-442-7718
_www.PittsfieldCityJazz.org_ (http://www.pittsfieldcityjazz.org/)
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